The national elections have come and gone with all the campaigns and promises to match. The split of the Education Department came as no suprise, as many educators and trainers have felt strongly that it was too cumbersome a portfolio for one department to handle. From early childhood development (ECD) through to workplace education and training it was a great challenge for Naledi Pandor to drive. Particularly because of the separation of powers with regards to the provincial departments which act fairly autonomously from the National Department and have proven to be rather badly managed. Ongoing logistical support problems for schools and colleges have been the order of the day for quite some time.
Our keen interest lies with Dr. Nzimande who as an ex-academic himself from the University of Natal heads into the hot seat driving both higher education as well as workplace training. A recent insider tip has skills development and its related organs all falling under his new department. Thus severing the ties with the Department of Labour and its key role in actively managing the skills development process in South Africa.
With the rather intricate legal mechanisms in place there will no doubts be a overhaul or series of major amendments to all the skills development, further education and high education acts to reflect this change. What does this all mean for us out there? Well it looks like the Sector Education & Training Authoritie's will fall under the new Higher Education and Training Ministry and that the skills levies and supporting funds like the National Skills Fund will be realigned to implement the new reality.
We can only congratulate the new Minister and wish him and his team the best of luck. We look forward to a more focused and integrated era under his watch. Hopefully some of the issues that plagued the Department of Labour (DoL)and the Department of Education (DoE) historically will not be a feature of the new structure moving forward. In my view policy development and project planning expertise has been lacking in both departments for quite sometime and a focus on integrated and joined-up policy is needed. Knowing that the new National Planning Commission is housed within the Office of the Presidency driven by Trevor Manuel provides some relief in sight for me. But rather than focusing on planning the concept of an integrated monitoring and evaluation system also housed within the Office of the Presidency provides even more hope. It is within that realm that skills development and training has suffered due to teh late detection of implementation issues of various public-led training projects. Particularly learnerships and related activities. It will be very interesting to see how the existing education and training quality assurance (ETQA) framework will contribute to the state led monitoring and evaluation (M & E) mechanisms.
Until then we are moving into our last month before submitting Workplace Skills Plans (WSP) and Annual Training Reports (ATR) to our respective SETA's. If you have not done so yet, I would sincerly suggest that you start your workplace training needs planning for the year ahead. Bear in mind that the skills levy and grant cycle runs from 30 June to 30 June over a twelve month period. So your plans for 2009-2010 and your report for the year 2008-2009 are almost due.
Make sure you have your registered skills development facilitator (SDF) working on it for you. A first step is designing a training needs analysis tool and reviewing the SETA template for the WSP submission which have all been loaded up on to the various SETA websites. If you are a large organisation you should be scheduling a training committee meeting to examine the companies training needs. I will be posting some more tips on skills and training planning for you all shortly.
Showing posts with label Training Needs Analysis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Training Needs Analysis. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Adult literacy training a success at top resort management company
It has been fantastic to be associated with the development and drive to take First Resorts guest and member service to the next level. Through the sheer determination, talent and drive of Charne Webb the Training & Development Manager, the team and the resorts have benefited from the focused attention and direction provided. Charne has taken the time to evaluate the performance needs, investigate current service challenges and adddress staff development aspirations. Speaking to managers and staff members alike which has certainly brought a fresh approach to the First Resorts human management focus. All very admirable considering that her current team is very small and covers resorts across the depth and breadth of South Africa.
Over above this Charne is currently studying towards her higher certificate in occupationally-directed education training and development practice at the Business Studies Unit at the Durban University of Technology.Charne has brought a wealth of experience and academic grounding with her from her student days at the International Hotel School in Durban.
My direct involvment in facilitating and building a training and development system has been really easy working with such a strongly committed individual. As one of the first Resort Management companies to be on track to be accredited First Resorts has already been invited by the Tourism Sector Education Training Authority (THETA) to be able to implement publicly funded adult basic education training (ABET), targeting basic literacy and numeracy skills. Obviously a huge area of concern in South africa hwere the lack of basic reading and comprehension skills limits otherwise highly motivated individuals from advancing their careers, engaging in more demanding vocational training or developing their expertise further.
We look forward to the accreditation visit by the Tourism SETA Quality Assurance Department which will also give recognition to the high standards of training that First Resorts are delivering to their staff and even beyond to sub-contracting companies in the cleaning services environment. Charne well done to you and your team. Our next challenge is to offer fully-accredited learnerships in hospitality reception - the forefront of the guest and member experience. Hold thumbs for us.
Over above this Charne is currently studying towards her higher certificate in occupationally-directed education training and development practice at the Business Studies Unit at the Durban University of Technology.Charne has brought a wealth of experience and academic grounding with her from her student days at the International Hotel School in Durban.
My direct involvment in facilitating and building a training and development system has been really easy working with such a strongly committed individual. As one of the first Resort Management companies to be on track to be accredited First Resorts has already been invited by the Tourism Sector Education Training Authority (THETA) to be able to implement publicly funded adult basic education training (ABET), targeting basic literacy and numeracy skills. Obviously a huge area of concern in South africa hwere the lack of basic reading and comprehension skills limits otherwise highly motivated individuals from advancing their careers, engaging in more demanding vocational training or developing their expertise further.
We look forward to the accreditation visit by the Tourism SETA Quality Assurance Department which will also give recognition to the high standards of training that First Resorts are delivering to their staff and even beyond to sub-contracting companies in the cleaning services environment. Charne well done to you and your team. Our next challenge is to offer fully-accredited learnerships in hospitality reception - the forefront of the guest and member experience. Hold thumbs for us.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Training a real profession in a global workplace.
Good afternoon tribe members, I hope you are all well out there. It seems like it is that time of the year again for training and skills development professionals planning the new workplace skills plan or annual training plan, plus put the annual training report together for the SETA that you are registered with for feedback and grant claim purposes. For larger corporate organisations it can be quite daunting and let me give you a little hint here. Put the Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) together, use it as an opportunity to get your peer's in other departments inputs, leverage the process to get staff onboard.
Times might be tough, but by bringing the grants back in you demonstrate your value directly into the organisation and its leadership. This is a key area for all of us to focus on in the direct future. Providing quantifiable metrics and return on training investment is a key component that training professionals need to incorporate in their day-to-day operations. How can I bring more value into the organisation and how can the training department support the attainment of key organisational objectives? Ask yourself that. That question is really key to you moving from a process-reactive trainer mode to a proactive-objective trainer mode. A far better place to be in and to be leading from. Training or as the american society for training and development calls it workplace learning and performance (WLP) has come into its own. Have a look at this short YouTube clip below regarding the global view of training and development.
Now after that little bit of motivation and hopefully inspiration you will recognise how critical it is to be deeply involved in the key core business processes and not just conduct the usual training needs analysis at very micro or individual level. Just remember training 101, you have to include key organisational strategic needs and drivers in your needs analysis. Unfortunately the SETA's do not account for this in their workplace skills plan templates which most of use for our annual training planning activities. It is very process and evidence oriented and tends to target very oeprational needs. Now do not get me wrong, that is a key aspect of our roles, but not the only role that we must fulfil.
The use of social media is exploding across the world and with the advent of the new Seacom cable landing on our shores at Mtunzini this year we should see some significant decreases in broad-band and internet costs.
Already internet service providers like MWeb and Neotel and others are offering substantial discounted bundles and packages for individuals and organisations. So why am I telling you this? Consider using social media in your organisation to assist you with needs analysis and staff engagement and training programme identification. I bet your marketers or customer services staff are either considering it or are already using social media in their marketing and service mix. You might be using some social media applications yourself like Facebook or Skype, maybe LinkedIn.
Consider how you could deploy these in your organisational and create a social-media enabled integrated training strategy.
On that note please complete this short poll on social media. I would like to get an idea about how many organisations are using social media in their integrated social-media training strategy. Chat to you all soon.
Times might be tough, but by bringing the grants back in you demonstrate your value directly into the organisation and its leadership. This is a key area for all of us to focus on in the direct future. Providing quantifiable metrics and return on training investment is a key component that training professionals need to incorporate in their day-to-day operations. How can I bring more value into the organisation and how can the training department support the attainment of key organisational objectives? Ask yourself that. That question is really key to you moving from a process-reactive trainer mode to a proactive-objective trainer mode. A far better place to be in and to be leading from. Training or as the american society for training and development calls it workplace learning and performance (WLP) has come into its own. Have a look at this short YouTube clip below regarding the global view of training and development.
Now after that little bit of motivation and hopefully inspiration you will recognise how critical it is to be deeply involved in the key core business processes and not just conduct the usual training needs analysis at very micro or individual level. Just remember training 101, you have to include key organisational strategic needs and drivers in your needs analysis. Unfortunately the SETA's do not account for this in their workplace skills plan templates which most of use for our annual training planning activities. It is very process and evidence oriented and tends to target very oeprational needs. Now do not get me wrong, that is a key aspect of our roles, but not the only role that we must fulfil.
The use of social media is exploding across the world and with the advent of the new Seacom cable landing on our shores at Mtunzini this year we should see some significant decreases in broad-band and internet costs.
Already internet service providers like MWeb and Neotel and others are offering substantial discounted bundles and packages for individuals and organisations. So why am I telling you this? Consider using social media in your organisation to assist you with needs analysis and staff engagement and training programme identification. I bet your marketers or customer services staff are either considering it or are already using social media in their marketing and service mix. You might be using some social media applications yourself like Facebook or Skype, maybe LinkedIn.
Consider how you could deploy these in your organisational and create a social-media enabled integrated training strategy.
On that note please complete this short poll on social media. I would like to get an idea about how many organisations are using social media in their integrated social-media training strategy. Chat to you all soon.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Do the needs analysis first!
I could not start my blog about training in Southern Africa without tackling the one area that is so lacking. The needs analysis. Too many training departments and organisations invest in misdirected training programmes and 'courses' for their employees. Often assuming that training is going to fix everything. Its just not true and if anything can impact on performance to a far greater degree. As it is training managers and human resource professionals are fighting to hold on to their budgets in these uncertain times, when organisations are protecting their cash-flow and literally tighten down on expenditure in what many still consider a 'soft' operational focus or department.
We only have ourselves to blame here. By doing a thorough needs analysis of the performance requirements of the workforce a training or human resource management department are in a better position to really understand the fundamental dynamics of the ever-changing needs to deliver human performance. Well take a step back for a moment and also consider that the staff performance is dependent on allot more than pure applied skill and individual expertise. Strong 'leading-from-the-front' managers are just as critical and as Peter Senge aptly puts it. If you are not a learning organisation, you are already as good as dead. Fairly radical? No, actually with the rate of change globally, the internet (Web 2.0) as a catalyst for development and factoring in economic instability plus growing climate change concerns has created a veritable cauldron of dangerous elements. Not all of them necessarily compatible with each other. Yet for a training professional we are at the crucible, the molten core, trying to figure out where we can make a difference by understanding the needs of our workforce and the world they and your organisation is operating in.
Its no longer enough to understand just the individual, his or her team, or the department. Its more, its the whole business and the environment it operates in and the community and customers it serves. Key to this is a true understanding of of what competition really means to your business. You might be wondering what that has got to do with you as a training professional. Its actually key for you to know as much as you can about who and what the competitive environment is like for the staff that you develop, procure and train courses on. It will assist you to really understand the performance requirements of the employees from a different perspective and will support your training needs analysis and its design.
A decent training needs analysis thus cuts across the strategic external environment as well as its internal dynamics. To defend your budget and in fact grow your influence beyond budgeting you have to take a more proactive stance in the determination of organisational strategy, the competitor analysis and other key strategic planning processes that your organisations might undertake. Rather than being delegated to fulfilling strategic training needs by others, get yourself into those strategic conversations.
Do it with credibility though. Do you homework, build your internal network with other key managers in a cross-functional sense. Whether its marketing, sales, production, operations, etc it really does not matter. At times like this passivity is the death knell of many a training department and team.
Have a look at at Michael Porters YouTube video below explaining the concept of competiveness and forces that influence organisations.
Knowledge Resources well-known events and publishing organisation in South Africa are conducting a HR practices survey. It can give you some idea of the issues that various organisations have identified as being key. Although more HR-centric than training oriented, you as Tribe members might find it a useful exercise. Click here to complete the survey.
We only have ourselves to blame here. By doing a thorough needs analysis of the performance requirements of the workforce a training or human resource management department are in a better position to really understand the fundamental dynamics of the ever-changing needs to deliver human performance. Well take a step back for a moment and also consider that the staff performance is dependent on allot more than pure applied skill and individual expertise. Strong 'leading-from-the-front' managers are just as critical and as Peter Senge aptly puts it. If you are not a learning organisation, you are already as good as dead. Fairly radical? No, actually with the rate of change globally, the internet (Web 2.0) as a catalyst for development and factoring in economic instability plus growing climate change concerns has created a veritable cauldron of dangerous elements. Not all of them necessarily compatible with each other. Yet for a training professional we are at the crucible, the molten core, trying to figure out where we can make a difference by understanding the needs of our workforce and the world they and your organisation is operating in.
Its no longer enough to understand just the individual, his or her team, or the department. Its more, its the whole business and the environment it operates in and the community and customers it serves. Key to this is a true understanding of of what competition really means to your business. You might be wondering what that has got to do with you as a training professional. Its actually key for you to know as much as you can about who and what the competitive environment is like for the staff that you develop, procure and train courses on. It will assist you to really understand the performance requirements of the employees from a different perspective and will support your training needs analysis and its design.
A decent training needs analysis thus cuts across the strategic external environment as well as its internal dynamics. To defend your budget and in fact grow your influence beyond budgeting you have to take a more proactive stance in the determination of organisational strategy, the competitor analysis and other key strategic planning processes that your organisations might undertake. Rather than being delegated to fulfilling strategic training needs by others, get yourself into those strategic conversations.
Do it with credibility though. Do you homework, build your internal network with other key managers in a cross-functional sense. Whether its marketing, sales, production, operations, etc it really does not matter. At times like this passivity is the death knell of many a training department and team.
Have a look at at Michael Porters YouTube video below explaining the concept of competiveness and forces that influence organisations.
Knowledge Resources well-known events and publishing organisation in South Africa are conducting a HR practices survey. It can give you some idea of the issues that various organisations have identified as being key. Although more HR-centric than training oriented, you as Tribe members might find it a useful exercise. Click here to complete the survey.
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